Topic outline

The lecture provides a general overview of two mayor economic processes that revolutionized the face of Central Europe during last 25 years. The first is the process of political and economic transition from socialist centrally-planned economies that operated within the communist regime to market economy existing within the framework of democratic political system. This part of the lecture focuses on initial conditions, strategies and outcomes. Special attention is given to Poland and Hungary, which serve as prime examples of two very different strategies of transition. The second process is economic integration and the challenges related with the membership of Central European Countries in the EU. In this section Dr. Orzechowska-Wacławska shortly characterizes the milestones of the accession process, and concentrates on profit-cost analysis, trying to determine what where the ex ante and what were the ex post estimates of Central Europe’s EU Membership.